<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>the moon and the stars are nothing without you by bad_ash10</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28973802">the moon and the stars are nothing without you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_ash10/pseuds/bad_ash10'>bad_ash10</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, Philinda - Freeform, Star Gazing, Tahiti</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:00:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>937</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28973802</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bad_ash10/pseuds/bad_ash10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil and Melinda spend one of their nights on Tahiti watching a meteor shower on the beach.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Phil Coulson/Melinda May</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the moon and the stars are nothing without you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have lots of sad Philinda feels, so I'm taking you guys down with me. &lt;3</p><p>--</p><p>Title from "Lay Me Down" by Sam Smith. For an extra jolt of sadness, feel free to listen to the song, imagine it from May's POV post s5. Thank me for the sadness later. ;)</p><p>--</p><p>See end notes for TW.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Tahiti was beautiful. The bright sun, the pale blue water that lapped at the shore, the snow-white sands of the beaches, the deep green of palm fronds rustling in the breeze. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Gorgeous. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>If she didn’t overthink it, Melinda could almost forget that Phil’s time was limited at first. They’d lounged on the beach, done some light hiking, shopped at some of the local stores, and gone to dinner out most evenings. Plus they had been parasailing, an activity they had both </span>
  <em>
    <span>thoroughly </span>
  </em>
  <span>enjoyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now though? They spent a majority of their day in the small beach house they were renting, Phil sleeping most of the day away, and Melinda watching him, comforted by the sight of his chest rising and falling every few seconds. They’d gotten more time than they expected already, but she knew his time was running out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which is why when Phil suggested they wake up at two a.m. to watch a meteor shower, she had initially fought him.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You need your rest, Phil,” she sighed.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Come on, Melinda. How many chances have we ever taken to just sit and enjoy the night sky?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>She finally agreed, and on the night of the shower, she woke around 1:30, taking some blankets out to the cushy, oversized lounge chair before she went to wake Phil. Melinda always took a few minutes to ground herself before she woke him - she was determined not to let him see her cry in his final days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melinda stood outside staring at the sea for several minutes, trying not to imagine what the next few days would hold. That seemed to be what she did in her free time now - try not to think about the inevitable. Eventually though, the first meteor streaked across the sky and she went to go wake him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She kissed him softly, smiling when his eyes fluttered open. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey. Time for the meteor shower?” He asked, his voice still thick with sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. You still want to do this?” Melinda whispered, kissing his cheek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Phil chuckled. “I do. As long as you’re coming with me.” He reached out a hand to her in question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melinda helped him sit up and put one of his arms around her shoulders to support him as he stood. He wobbled slightly at first but steadied himself against her as they slowly started making their way out the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The walk through the sand was agonizingly long, and Phil stumbled several times. Still, he refused to let her take him back inside, insisting he was going to see the meteor shower with or without her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They finally made it to the lounger, and Melinda helped him ease down onto it. She fussed over him, adjusting his pillows and making sure he had enough blankets before he finally caught her hand and pulled her gently onto the lounger with him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All I need is you, Melinda. Forget about the blankets, alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>May stared at him for a moment, taking in the dark circles under his eyes the black lines creeping upward from his chest that now stretched almost to his jawline. She swallowed hard, trying to force down the tears that she could feel welling in her eyes before she nodded and curled into him, resting her head on his chest as he wrapped her in his arms. She knew she was going to miss this soon, but it made her appreciate the thrum of his heartbeat under her cheek all the more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a moment he whispered, “Look,” half-heartedly pointing to a large meteor streaking through the inky blackness above them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stayed like that for over an hour wrapped in each other’s arms, just watching the meteors and finding constellations they recognized, talking about everything and nothing, enjoying the night on the beach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In quiet moments and lulls in conversation, Melinda tried to fight back her worries. They had days left together at most. She wasn’t ready to say goodbye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Phil traced patterns on her back with his fingertips and she shivered from the light touch. “You’re thinking about it again, Melinda.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry.” She sighed, shoving the thoughts away once again. “Are you ready to go back to the house? We’ve only seen one meteor in the last twenty minutes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He chuckled. “What, you don’t want to sleep out here? Let the waves lull us to sleep?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melinda turned to look up at him. He looked exhausted, and she knew his request came from him being too tired to walk back up the beach. “Sure. We can stay here tonight.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Melinda woke suddenly, blinking against the bright light of the rising sun. She covered her face with the blanket to block out the light and snuggled into Phil’s chest again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something was </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong -she couldn’t hear his heart beating. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Melinda threw the blankets off of them, sitting up quickly and putting two fingers below Phil’s jawline, looking for a pulse. There wasn’t one.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No! She thought they had more time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>May sat up, breathing shakily as she pulled her knees up to her chest. By looking at him, she wouldn’t have known he was gone - he could just be sleeping. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled sadly before leaning over and kissing his forehead gently. “I love you,” she whispered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Melinda knew she needed to call Daisy. And she would soon. But calling Daisy would mean questions to answer, burial arrangements to make, and her friends would arrive, giving her that pitying stare like they had after Andrew died. She couldn’t handle that yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No- for now, she would sit here, alone in her grief, and mourn the man she loved.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>TW: major character death</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>